The use of a headrest guide assembly is known in the art. As is known, automobiles are designed to accommodate individuals having a range of heights. Because of the potential variations in height of the occupants, and to prevent serious injury such as whiplash, vehicle manufactures provide adjustable headrests mounted on one or more supports, such as one or more cylindrical rods. To provide an adjustable headrest, one of the supports can include a series of notches on a first side, each notch defining a possible position for the headrest. A guide assembly is mounted to the seat and can engage the notches so that the headrest can be held in a desired position. Once a button on the guide assembly is pressed, the support can be moved up or down between notches so that the headrest can be repositioned as desired. Some such designs also allow the headrest to be removed from the seat in a similar manner.
Proposed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 202a, however, would require that the headrest be designed so that the headrest cannot be removed from the seat solely by hand. To prevent the rod and the headrest from being removed from the seat, a notch can be provided on a second side of the rod that will engage the guide assembly and prevent removal of the headrest. However, this can make removal of the headrest from the seat difficult. To meet the proposed standard while still allowing for removal of the headrest in order to provide for separate replacement of seats and headrests, current designs often use two guides. A button on a first guide assembly allows the first guide assembly to disengage from the notches on the first side of the rod so that the headrest can be repositioned. To remove the headrest, a second guide assembly can be actuated so that the second guide assembly does not engage the notch on the second side of the rod and thus, the headrest can be removed from the seat. Unfortunately, such a design requires two guide assemblies, which increases the cost and complexity of the overall seat design. The increase in cost and complexity is especially troublesome given the infrequent need to remove the headrest. The present invention is directed at solving these and other known problems by providing a single guide assembly that will allow for positioning of the headrest by activating a button while still allowing removal of the headrest pursuant to the proposed Federal standard.